I spent most of last evening researching Indian cuisine for the new book. Now I just need to go to Sahara Mart for ingredients like ghee, red lentils, and kalonji. I'm going to try making Indian Naan and Chapati bread and something called Dahl that's made with red lentils. I made my own garam masala spice mix, except I didn't have any ground cardamom, so I need to get that too. LOL! Who knew writing a book with an Indian hero could be so interesting!
Speaking of things I've never done before, I was recently asked to give a workshop on world building to the Indiana RWA chapter next March. When Slave was first published, people used to tell me how good I was at world building, and back then, I didn't even know what that meant. I know what it means now, but I still wasn't sure I could teach anyone my method. However, after giving it some thought and jotting down a few notes, I realized I could do it--one of those "you never know 'til you try" things.
Since Sandy James and I were asked to come back to the Starbase Indy convention in November, I thought this might be a good topic for that too. So I started working on an animated PowerPoint presentation for it--something else I've never done before. Sandy added a few pictures and I had a blast searching for additional Star Trek-themed illustrations. I'll probably use different pictures for the IRWA version, but I'm betting the Trekkers will get the jokes!
Enjoy your Monday!
